Super Breakout

  • Manufacturer: Atari
  • Year: 1978

Useful info

  • Cabinet type: Upright
  • Measures (WxHxD): 64,5 x 176,8 x 71,0 cm
  • Working voltage: 220V
  • Maximum consumption: 118,0W 0,765A
  • Technology: Vertical B/W raster monitor with colored overlay

It is the second part of the first and most famous game of the “wall”, Breakout. The player controls a horizontal paddle at the bottom of the screen. A ball bounces off the screen and the player has to prevent it from leaving the only open side. Once taken, the ball bounces on the overlying wall, destroying all the bricks it meets. As the game progresses, the ball’s speed up. This evolution (“Super” not for nothing) gives the player the possibility to choose 3 game modes by turning a knob before the game starts. The game modes are as follows:

  • Double: two paddles lined up with two balls simultaneously.
  • Cavity: two balls are trapped inside the wall; once released, they can be used to continue the game.
  • Prog: as the game progresses the wall moves down approaching the paddle making the play field more narrow and cramped.

This cabinet  is completely original in the US version and in excellent aesthetic condition. The plexiglass have been regenerated and the side art partially reconstructed where needed.

Three games, one cab!

8 April 2014

I think Super Breakout is very cool. I’ve been lucky to find it… in Germany of course…

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Inside

8 April 2014

First of all I removed everything from inside. Cleaned. And remounted.

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PCB

8 April 2014

The PCB was in quite good conditions.



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TV

9 April 2014

This is the TV inside the cab. I needed a lot of time to put it in working conditions. I had no HV at all and I troubleshooted all H circuit without any  result. After a lot of time I found a soldering that had not contact with the components.

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Front

9 April 2014

The front panel was damaged and I decided to remake it.

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Coin door

9 April 2014

Usual job for the coin door…

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Left side

9 April 2014

Left side was damaged. Probably I did it during the transport.

  1. I prepared the smooth surface
  2. I used an adhesive white vinyl
  3. I covered the colored parts
  4. I used ivory spray paint in order to have no differences between the old white side art and the new “patch”

 Phase 1

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Phase 2

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Phase 3

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Phase 4

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This is the result.

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CP overlay

9 April 2014

CP needed to be restored. I didn’t want to destroy the original I had so I proceeded in the following way:

  • I removed all parts from the control panel
  • I cleaned the surface
  • I put an aluminium sheet covering all the control panel
  • then I printed on vinyl the CP overlay
  • I used this adhesive overlay on the aluminium

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I covered with a transparent overlay both start buttons

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The end

9 April 2014

This is the final result of the work

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PCB troubleshooting

9 April 2014

One day, after some hours of playing, board became faulty. Test gave an error on BIT 7 Following the schematics I checked all components involved in the management of this bit and all components more or less related but nothing happened. This is the part of the schematics I used.

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After some other checks I found the faulty IC: 9322 (=74157) in J2. In practice  A7 wasn’t managed correctly.